When Culture Is The Wrong Context

Therefore when you meet together, it is not to eat the Lord's Supper, for in your eating each one takes his own supper first; and one is hungry and another is drunk.  What! Do you not have houses in which to eat and drink? Or do you despise the church of God and shame those who have nothing? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you? In this I will not praise you. (1 Corinthians 11:20-22 NASB)

There are strange inconsistencies in Paul that make reading and understanding him difficult at times.  Sometimes he's clear and point directly at my heart.  Other times, I seriously wonder if I get what he's saying at all.  Here I think I get it, but I have a problem with his application.  For instance, this is where some are eating a 'separate' or 'personal' meal of 'good food' or something like that, while others without such resources don't get such a meal.  So the wealthy have a better meal, like first class on an airline.  It's something that's just a pat of the socioeconomic climate; it still persists somewhat today.

The problem that Paul points out is that this completely invalidates the meaning of the Lord's Supper or Communion in which this is happening.  Okay, so the cultural norm or expectation is unacceptable at the Lord's Table.  Got it.  Let's make that a rule...oh wait, the previous section has a cultural norm as the rule for women participating in worship.  So which is it?  Do we use the culture in which we live or not?  How much is allowed into the church, and where?

These are not easy questions.  They are the source of debate for centuries, actually two millennia.  Missionaries face it constantly, often in obvious ways.  We, in this country tend to ignore the problem, but to our own peril.  The 'American' culture is assumed to be favorable to Christianity, Scripture, and church practice.  And it is, compared to the polytheistic culture of the Roman Empire that deified living emperors.  But our modern American culture is not, actually, favorable to Jesus as the Christ, Savior, and Lord of Lord's.  Don't get upset, no human culture is.

So, the problem of navigating practice, meaning, and teaching of the things of the Creator of all things within congregations of Bible-believing followers of Jesus is tough.  It's not optional though.  Pastors, teachers, leaders of all sorts within these congregations have this as their primary responsibility.  Whatever they are called, their role is to lead the people along behind the Spirit of God as He guides us.  This will correspond with Scripture at every point; but how that Scripture is applied will take sensitivity to the Spirit who inspired it, time spent in study, and a dogged determination to be obedient over popular.  I tend to follow people who have this view, and avoid and criticize those who don't.

So, Paul's practice doesn't make understanding him easy, but he lays out the right path, the one we must follow in our congregations.  Some things are acceptable within the congregation and others are definitely not.  Culture cannot be allowed to dictate practice within the body of Christ.  Sensitivity and recognition of the culture must be considered along with practice, as the church must connect to people in order to influence the culture for Christ Jesus.  But the 'filter' must be Scripture, the Spirit of God, and diligent perseverance to be obedient over popular.

So, my application goes like this:  1) as a church leader, I need to have this filter firmly in place as I teach and lead.  2) I need to follow leaders who have this same filter (not those with the same views, but those with views derived from this filter).  3) This needs to be part of my teaching.  And since I'm writing this blog entry...I suppose number 3 is a 'gimme'.

The Corinthian Paradigm Shift

For the word of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (1 Corinthians 1:18 NASB)

For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. (1 Corinthians 1:22-24 NASB)

There are themes, intentions, and designs in this letter to the church in Corinth woven through the words of Paul.  One of the foundational is a theme of 'unity'; the age-old question, 'Why can't we all just get along?'  But unity without a focus, without a center, and without a core is temporary and often destructive.  Without a core of our Creator, unity becomes selfish and often cruel.  It's not enough to be unified.

So, Paul, calling on the battling factions within Corinth; people who seem to only agree that Paul, the founder of their church, is weak and foolish compared to where they have arrived now; provides a different core.  The core of unity for Paul is Jesus.  The Spirit of God unifies, but He unifies His people around Jesus; the whole story of his death, burial, resurrection and ascension.   But this story, and this Person, is at odds with the prevailing wisdom of the day; kind of like today.

Paul says in this chapter that he was not called or chosen by Jesus to baptize (verse 17), but to proclaim the good news of Jesus.  Jesus' 'Great Commission' includes baptism, but it also includes 'teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.'  And perhaps these two things are best understood within a larger context of 'make disciples of all the nations,' because this seems to be the method of Paul.  He brings the good news, and with it, makes disciples; who then make up a church.

In Corinth, things had gone very wrong after he left.  As often happens, people new to a way of life integrate the way they used to be and think into the new one.  We often 'enculturate' Jesus into our culture, adding elements of our society's perspective into worship and other things.  But when we 'replace' the story of Jesus' death, burial, resurrection and ascension with our familiar comfortable acceptable cultural things; we have then left following Jesus.  It happens when a dying, rising, and ascending God seems at odds with the prevailing wisdom of our world, the paths of science, the philosophy of the current crop of scholars; so we prune the account to be more acceptable and fit better with conventional wisdom.

This is what has happened in Corinth; the underlying way of thinking though has also undermined their acceptance of Paul as an apostle of God, and therefore as an authority in their lives.  This gets at a personal problem I struggle with in my relationship with my Master.  Part of the problem is that I 'filter' authority in my life.  I say 'part' of the problem because, in a sense, we are supposed to filter authority.  The thing is, my filter is often has a 'tighter mesh' than it should be.

What happens is this, I know that I am to filter according to what my Master has preserved in Scriptures.  But then I also filter according to my particular reading, then according to my particular view, and then according to my favorite passages, and then according to my comfort level, and then...I have a very self-centered view, and I'm the authority, not the person my Master has placed in my life.  I can't really live that way, but I try.  I set aside even my Master in favor of my authority.  The world around me constantly tells me that is is not only okay, but right, my right!  But it's wrong.

It's subtle though.  I don't share the good news of my Master with my neighbors, and I come up with good 'reasons' (also known as 'excuses').  And the result is that it becomes easier to make the next compromise.  My 'light' no longer sits on the window sill, but hides under a basket.  And in the darkness of that basket, I'm free to set aside all sorts of other commands of my Master.  I make a thin pretense of following my Master when in reality I'm not sold out to Him at all.  My family sees it, perhaps close friends, but eventually I don't even see it.

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing myself to others.  The real easy problem here is to look at what I do, where I'm at, and then look around me and say, "What? I'm not that bad."  When what I need to do is to look at my Master, listen to His voice, and repent (agree with His assessment of me).  And then I receive the grace He offers in restoration of our relationship, restoration of where our relationship was, not that I had lost it, or had no relationship. 

That's probably where the most dangerous lie of my enemy stems from.  I'm not out of relationship with my Master, I'm just not completely invested in it.  I can continue on in a cold heart and wonder away, but that's not likely with me.  I'm more likely to find a comfortable, lukewarm, place in the sun and relax.  I'm in relationship, just not the sort my Master is calling me into.  I know Him, but I'm not exactly available.  I have a desire for Him, just not strong enough to overcome my fears.  I love Him, but not more than myself, and my comfort.  From one perspective, I have been saved, but from another, He is not my 'Lord'.  I believe in the resurrection, but do not permit the power of the resurrection to bring life to my soul.  From one perspective I am saved, from another, perhaps not.

I believe I am saved, in that my Master is able to work in my life, bring these sorts of things to my mind, and use me to further His kingdom to an extent.  But there is more than I have been experiencing.  And it's my fault I'm not experiencing it already.  I suppose, that is really the core of my lesson from this passage.  I too, like the Corinthians, have brought the wisdom of this world into my relationship with my Master, and replaced His commands with more comfortable recommendations.  So this is not just some millennia-old letter from some grumpy religious philosopher to an ancient group of people about archaic beliefs. It is a letter from my Master to me.

You Were Serious About That?

"Thus says the LORD of hosts, 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt.  Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.'" (1 Samuel 15:2 NASB)

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.  Then the word of the LORD came to Samuel, saying,  11 "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands." And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the LORD all night. (1 Samuel 15:9-11 NASB)

There are several things here on which I could spend several entries. This is one of the richest chapters for theology and life with my Master in Scripture.  But one in particular is one I have been quick to judge and slow to really appreciate.  Because of that, I have missed that I make the same mistake Saul and the people make.

Essentially God gives a command that was not carried out during the time Israel was in the desert and coming into Canaan.  Since the Amalekites weren't destroyed in the desert, they continued to harass the people after they entered the land.  They would sweep in, plunder, and sweep back out again.  Rather than produce anything other than sheep and goats in the desert, they stole from other nations who had farming.

In chapter 14, they are referred to as the ones plundering Israel.  So consider what the people find when they attack Amalek.  They find all sorts of things, some which they may have owned at one time.  This has to incite anger.  In obedience, they devote most of it to God; but in disobedience they keep the best, they plunder the ones having plundered them.  They intend to bring it back and offer it in sacrifice to God, so they'll use in worship, and that should make up for having kept it.

The problem is that in sacrifice of the type they describe, the people share in the sacrifice, it's not wholly consumed in the fire.  They intend to share with God what they plundered, even give Him the good parts, but not all of it.  God required all of it.  In fact it was supposed to be considered so holy, no one was to touch it at all, but it was to be completely destroyed in place.  No herding, no trading, and certainly no eating.

Would it have seemed a waste to them?  Would it have seemed "excessive" to them?  Would it have seemed unreasonable to them?  It probably would have to people today.  In fact, I believe such a sin is committed by people professing faith in Jesus today, in church, all the time.  We tend to have a dysfunctional concept of holiness today.  This dysfunctional holiness means we find it easy to disobey.  The two go hand-in-hand.

My last entry was about being terrified of my Master.  This terror, I claim, leads to obedience.  I believe this is true partly because the wrath of God punctuates His holiness.  He is 'other' than us, inexplicable, powerful beyond measure, and with unimaginable thoughts and reasoning.  We cannot see from His perspective unless He shows us a part of it.  All we have of Him is what He shares with us, and those parts are pretty peculiar, and sometimes very scary.

But when believers, such as myself, make the Master of the universe a warm fuzzy 'nice guy', or loving kind sweet old man, we've set up an idol of our own making.  This idol we can disobey, this idol looks a lot like the god of the world, the god of atheism, the god projected out of the sinful selfishness of frail faulty human creatures.  This is not the same as the God having spoken the universe into existence. 

To the degree that this sort of distorted image of God exists in our minds, we are able to easily disregard certain rules asked of us by God.  Certain Scriptures can be taken lightly or ignored all together.  But there is a price for such a profane view of the Master of galaxies and quarks.

It is not easy, once having setup such an idol, to then go back and change it.  We set expectations of continued comfort when we begin with such an idol.  I have.  When I realize what I've done and try to change it, it get's thrown back in my face.  My failures, my mistakes, and sin are dredged up, and shown to me for what they are.  So how then can I judge who have done the same things?  How can I teach Scripture who have lived my life deviated from the teachings of Scripture?

I can be honest about both the failures and the consequences, the most common of which is the dredging up and resulting shame.  It's both a failure and a consequence (you have to love a double whammy like that).  The reality is that I have to teach that Scripture reveals that God does not tolerate fornication; but that I have been guilty of it, and have paid a price for it (and will continue to pay I'm sure).  I have to teach that God reveals through Scripture that He desires me to be a good diligent worker; but I am guilty of poor work quality, and sometimes really struggle with giving a good days work for a days pay.

It's not excusable that others do the same thing. It's not okay that I'm not alone in this.  Those are the same things said by Saul.  He blamed the people, but he was their leader.  It was on him to lead well and in obedience.  I'm not a king (thank you, my Master, for that!), but to the extent that I have leadership responsibilities, I too have the responsibility to lead people in obedience.  I must teach the truth of Scripture, not just the comfortable ones I like and I know others will like, but all of them.  And I must do so, knowing and owning that I am a "law breaker" just as all the rest.

So the answer is to worship my Master as holy and powerful beyond measure.  A certain degree of absolute terror is in order.  To honor Him in Scripture is to consider Him 'heavy', His words 'weighty', and in practice, myself as crushed by His presence and His words.

Now, the obvious error here is to run to the other direction and become so focused on the "laws" of Scripture that I judge on legalistic grounds.  What Scripture also teaches is that the holiness of my Master is transferred by Him to me.  I don't get it by working for it, as part of His grace, He gives it.  He is able to transform the ignoble, the common, and the profane into objects and acts of holiness.  So, He can use my failures to redeem others.  I can become an example of His grace and redemption as people see what I was and what He has made me. 

I can't be as I was and expect Him to use me.  In fact, in the example of Saul, it was his unwillingness to change that brought on his eventual rejection by God.  So, even then he was used by God, but as a bad example.  God redeemed Saul's mistakes within His divine purpose, but the man was lost.  So my failure to submit to my Master's commands will not thwart my Master, but may thwart my usefulness in His Kingdom.  In fact it has.  The continued submission to my addiction meant that I have been sidelined from ministry.  As I have emerged from this idolatrous submission to my selfish passions, He is able to use me more.  Yet His use of me always has the requirement to own that life I lived, and the different life I live now; as long as it is different.

So, today, I will walk as a crushed man before my Master.  I will walk as an example of His grace and mercy, and also His wrath.  I will live my life with the understanding that my life is not really mine and never has been.  I will obey partly out of fear of Who I obey and the consequences of disobedience.  And I will teach what He reveals to me in Scripture, owning my own failures to live it out, but striving to obey.

The Deadly Dangers of Being Like Everyone Else

So the Philistines were subdued and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.  The cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.  Now Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life. (1 Samuel 7:13-15 NASB

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; and they said to him, "Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations." (1 Samuel 8:4-5 NASB)

Nevertheless, the people refused to listen to the voice of Samuel, and they said, "No, but there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles." (1 Samuel 8"19-20 NASB)

The reasons the people asked for a king are interesting. First they say they want a king so they can be like the other nations, and because Samuel's sons don't walk in his ways.  It's true, his sons don't.  But the comment from chapter 7 says that Samuel was still judging Israel, so a new judge can be found.

The second reason, after Samuel has warned them what it will be like for them under a king, is that they want a king to be like the other nations, and to go out before them to fight their battles.  The problem here is that the Philistines have been subdued, and remained so during Samuel's life.  In fact, under Samuel, the people recovered cities taken by the Philistines under Samuel.  So this "battle chief" reason doesn't really work either.

The only consistent reason is that they want to be like all the other nations.  Unfortunately, they get their wish in spades.  Samuel lines out for them what life under a king will be like, but even he paints a rosier picture than what actually happens.  The kings of Israel are corrupt, and pagan.  They are so much like the nations around them that it's a good chance that the latter kings of Israel in Samaria weren't even Israelites. 

This goes way beyond, "Be careful what you wish for."  This signals the destruction of the people of Israel on a very fundamental level.  On the other hand, at the beginning of the monarchy, the people are more consistently unified than they had ever been, even entering the land under Joshua.  That unity lasts through the first three kings and blows apart with the fourth.  Actually, for Israel as "the people of God", it was all down hill from king number three.

So, when do I "want to be like all the other nations"?  When do I look around me and wonder what it would be like to have that, or go there, or achieve this or that?  What if I had the money they have, or went on vacations where they went with the stuff they take?  What if I worked my job like they do or viewed what I do with the same mentality?  I too could be a big shot, have boats, big expandable motor homes, larger houses, monstrous debt, lose my family, destroy my marriage, and "vaguely remember" what church was like. Yeah, I could do that.

I probably won't though.  The reasons are varied, and only partly make me look good.  I have other ways that I wind up choosing to be like "the all the other nations."  When I choose vacations over worship, I'm a lot like the other nations.  When I choose a church based on what it does for me, I'm a lot like the other nations.  When I read Scripture and pray a list of wants to my Master off a routine checklist, then I'm a lot like other nations.  Whenever I begin to marginalize my relationship to my Master, putting His things into boxes of the same size as other personal and family activities, then I'm a lot like the other nations.

I don't do a lot of these things, but I do some.  There are other things I could put on the list, some of which I struggle with, some I see in others.  The reality is that it is just as easy for me to choose to be like the other people around me as it was for the Israelites, and often it's even easier.  I didn't even touch on how worship sometimes flows from what we see in the world, whether concerts, performers, TV shows, or even other churches.  Whenever it stops being about my Master and me bowing before His throne, I've chosen to be like the all the other nations.

So, today, I will choose to pray listening for His word.  I will seek to honor Him at work; to make Him and His church the priority it should be, focus on my family and their spiritual health, as He wants me to; and look forward to, again, bowing before the throne of my Master with my fellow followers of Jesus.